Tech and Magic Varies
The phenomenon known as "The Park" is an exception to Nexus' tendency towards crowded urban realities. The Park contains wilderness realities with few native sentient inhabitants.
Like the Infinite City, the Park is a mosaic of shifting realities with varying types of gateways and portals between them. But unlike Nexus' great sprawl of interlocked realities, the Park is also a separate and self-contained entity. Nexans visiting the Park are usually only able to access the portions of the Park realities that are in phase with the Park. The Park seldom allows access to the wider realities that its chunks are drawn from. Nexans who enter the Park generally have to leave the by Park by re-entering Nexus.
Nexans value the Park as a place of beauty, leisure, and an alternative to their urban sprawl. For Nexans who choose to flirt with the Park's unique reality Tides, it can also be a place of adventure and sudden death.
The Park's Geography
Like Nexus, the Park's constantly shifting reality chunks defy conventional mapmaking. But there is a consistent structure to the Park's layout.
Nexans refer to the outer ring of the Park as "the Ring" or "the Flats." The Ring tends to be composed of terrain which does not greatly obscure vision: plains, savanna, scrublands, rivers, lakes, tundra, and desert. The reality chunks in the Ring are usually between half a mile and two miles in diameter.
The inner core of the Park is known as "the Green," "the Rough," and "the Core." It contains much rougher terrain that often blocks line-of-sight completely: forests, jungles, badlands, cliffs and mountains. Reality chunks in the Green are usually smaller than in the Flats, anywhere from two hundred yards to a mile in diameter.
The Tides
Theorists who avoid the word "Tide" are forced to refer to "reality cycles during which the interfaced realities oscillate slowly between periods of high and low probabilities of violent death." Most Nexans use the nature metaphors encouraged by the Park.
Sections of the Park which are at low Tide seldom contain overly aggressive wildlife or unusually dangerous natural phenomena. Of course wilderness areas are not created for human convenience, and many Nexans perish at Low Tide trying to get a better view of a waterfall or feeding the animals. As the Tide rises, Nature increases its ante. Truly dangerous wildlife abounds, or otherwise safe realities experience catastrophic natural phenomena such as storms, fires, tornadoes and earthquakes.
The Tides sweep around the Park in no readily discernible pattern. Different areas of the Park usually have different Tide levels. While one part of the Park is waning towards low Tide, other areas could have rising Tides. Since the Park is as non-linear as Nexus, 'map-readers' who try to apply a consistent structure to the movement of the Tides according to their concept of the Park's layout are in much worse shape than those who navigate experientially.
The changing of the Tide can be envisioned as a subtle cycling of reality levels. The scenery won't necessarily change as the Tide increases, but placid realities are quietly replaced by more dangerous realities. Those who linger too long as the Tide comes in may find themselves shifted into an entirely different (and more lethal-reality), or the shift may occur on a subtle level that they won't notice until the new reality's predators find their scent.
Tides usually rise and decrease slowly, though occasional rip Tides catch people unaware. The term 'High Tide' is generally reserved for a Park-wide condition of extreme danger which occurs once or twice a week . At High Tide, most of the Park is too dangerous for even the strongest and meanest Nexans to surf.
Nexan Family Tide Table
Low Tide funny looking hyenas and bring the kids.
Rising Tide watchful wolves and watch the kids carefully
Moderate Tide Dire wolves and watch the kids get carried away by the dire wolves
Surf's Up Killer dinosaurs. What kids? Are you crazy?
High Tide Things that prey on killer dinos. Time for you to join the kids.
Tide-Related Slang
Getting surf, getting wet Words for being caught in dangerous situations with animals or natural Phenonena from Park realities. "Heavy surf" has passed into general Nexan usage outside the park.
Tadpoles Nexans who only enter the park at the lowest Tides and do everything possible to get out with dry feet. Almost without exception, they enter the Park through the Park Gate and Mountville Zoo. They'd be just as well served by one of the the conventional parks maintained in Angel City where nature knows its place. Mant Tadpoles get caught in the surf eventualy, if only because they're scared and make stupid decisions.
Wader Slightly more: adventurous folks who enter the Park at low Tides.
Surf Rangers Nexans who enjoy wading in moderately risky tides "up to their waist."
Surfers Crazies and adventurers who try to stay just ahead of High Tide just for the thrill of it.
"Park's Up" Surfer slag for "the Tide's coming in, let's do it, dude." The slang is often used faceciously by non-surfers.
Green Out disruption of electroical, radio, telepathic, an magical communications caused by the Park's tides.
Going Tidepooling Searching the Park for weird critters, plants, and objects left high and dry and out of place after a High Tide. Seldom a sure thing, ince realities cycle in and out of the Park during or after High Tide, but theere have been enough spectacular finds that jackers and Nexans out for a casual stroll keep their eyes open.
Experienced Park visitors say that the Tides change "from the bottom up." Higher ground is affected last as the Tides creep up hills and mountainsides long after covering the lowlands. Nexans trapped in the park have saved themselves by summiting peaks the Tides didn't reach. Note that flyers and aerialists don't benefit from this exception--flying over the Park at High Tide still subjects you to dangerous aerial species and natural phenomena like gale force winds.
At Low Tide, indigenous animals and natural phenomena native to the Park's realities seldom cross over reality boundaries into realities which are extremely unlike their own. The hundreds or thousands of realities within the Park maintain their own ecological balance. As the Tide rises, the Park's realities begin to intermix, and Park visitors can no longer count on internal consistency within the realities.
The Wind
In general, the Park doesn't have to be dangerous unless visitors want it to be dangerous. For people who don't want to be caught in the surf, there is almost always room to run before the Tides. On the other hand, thrill seekers can find thrills, would be suicides easily find death, and those who cluelessly tempt fate will get a clue.
The best way to sense the movement of the Tides within the Park is to listen to the Wind. Like the sound of the ocean along a coastline, the sound of Wind passing through leaves or grass permeates the entire Park. Even in realities which lack wind or leaves for the wind to blow in, the sound of the Park's Wind is there for those who relax and listen for it.
Nexans with some experience in the Park (or natural talent) can hear the Wind rising and retreating with the Tides. The sound of the Wind blows from the direction the Tide is coming from. Nexans who aren't tuned well to the Park may hear the Wind growing without being able to tell which direction it's coming from. Park-savvy Nexans cock their heads or sensory limbs for a moment, say "Oh no, follow me!" and run in the direction opposite the growl of a rising Tide Wind.
Some surf-rangers swear that the winds blowing in the Park tend to follow the Wind of the Tides, but tadpoles attempting to follow that advice are probably headed for more surf than they can handle.
The higher the Tide, the easier it is to 'hear' the Wind and properly recognize which direction it is coming from. The Check to tune in to the Wind is made using the Charisma statistic, reflecting the Park's sensitivity to visitors' self-concepts. At the GM's option, nature-oriented PCs may receive a bonus on such Mnd:Cha Checks. Failure to properly hear the Wind can have several effects. In some cases the GM should inform the characters that they can't hear the Wind properly; in other cases the characters misjudge the Wind and receive incorrect information.
At Low Tide, determining the direction of the Wind requires a Check with a Difficulty of 10 or even higher. Rising Tides require a success against a Difficulty of 7, moderate Tides are Difficulty 5. "Surfs Up," which is usually as high as the Tides get, are Difficulty 0. Failures mean that the character mistakes the direction which the Tide is coming from or mistakes the level of the Tide. In the event of a full High Tide, no one will mistake the direction of the Wind.
If PCs are caught in the Park at High Tide, the GM is not obliged to overwhelm them with lethal natural phenomena or hostile wildlife. It * 's just as likely that the PCs stumble out of the Park into a Nexan reality they would otherwise never have wished to enter....
High Park
High Park is a very stable band of realities linking the greater Park to Nexus. As the name implies, all the High Park realities are on mountainsides . This keeps them out of the way of most of the Park's Tides.
All the major establishments which do business within the Park are located in the High Park; even Big Game Excursions Unlimited is located on a high-plateau reality near the Mountview Zoo.
High Park realities only empty out at the true High Tides, which generally occur only once or twice a week for a period of a couple of hours. This can be inconvenient for those who have scheduled their big date at Terrace Gardens for the evening which turns into full High Tide, but death is a greater inconvenience. The High Park establishments are used to managing the necessary transportation with a minimum of fuss and discomfort.
"Parkies" Groups Associated with the Park
The Oquido Feral humansoids who claim to be native to the park. They do act as Park guardians, but seldom involve themselves with huan affairs. Their antagonism with Big Game Excursions Unlimited and similar Nexan enterprises is the exception.
The Shamen Scouts Slang shorthand for Park-oriented humans from a variety of Nexan realities, generally regarded as Oquido wanna-bes.
Big Game Excursions Unlimited Humans selling other humans the opportunities to shoot things with guns. The Park has a way of turning hunters into hunted, but that's part of the thrill.
Foux Montagnard The latest in a series of Park climbing groups. Like its predecessors, FM 's half life is measured in months.
More Nexus Park: Mutual of Oh My God's Wild Kingdom A Wilderness Setting for Nexus
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